Garment assembly system and methods

ABSTRACT

Premade garment pieces which may be assembled into a garment or used independently are disclosed herein. A garment piece may comprise one or more fasteners or one or more fastener receivers or a combination of one or more fasteners and one or more fastener receivers. A fastener on one garment piece may preferably be configured to interface with a fastener receiver on another garment piece. The fastener and fastener receiver may interface to form a fastener assembly. One or more garment pieces may be assembled into a garment or may be used independently by a wearer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationSer. No. 62/193,091, filed on Jul. 16, 2015, the disclosure of which isincorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

BACKGROUND

Field of the Invention

This disclosure relates to premade garment pieces which may be assembledinto a garment or used independently.

Description of the Related Art

Garment waste is a significant global problem. Americans send 10.5million tons of garments to landfills each year. Seewww.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/07/where-does-discarded-clothing-go/374613/.Only about 10-15 percent of used clothing is donated. Id. A significantcause of this problem is excess purchasing—consumers simply buy moreclothes than they need and discard clothes before the useful life of theclothes has expired. People have various motivations for discardingclothing, though a desire for wardrobe variety and changing fashiontrends certainly play a significant role.

Thus there exists a significant need for a garment assembly system whichprovides significant variety and flexibility using a comparatively smallnumber of garments.

SUMMARY

Premade garment pieces which may be assembled into a garment or usedindependently are disclosed herein. A garment piece may comprise one ormore fasteners or one or more fastener receivers or a combination of oneor more fasteners and one or more fastener receivers. A fastener on onegarment piece may preferably be configured to interface with a fastenerreceiver on another garment piece. The fastener and fastener receivermay interface to form a fastener assembly. One or more garment piecesmay be assembled into a garment or may be worn independently by awearer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of sleeve garment pieces and a sleeveless topgarment piece that may be worn separately or assembled.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of various top and bottom garment pieces.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of garment pieces that may be wornindependently or assembled as a single garment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS

Premade garment pieces which may be assembled into a garment or usedindependently are disclosed herein. A garment piece may comprise one ormore fasteners or one or more fastener receivers or a combination of oneor more fasteners and one or more fastener receivers. A fastener on onegarment piece may preferably be configured to interface with a fastenerreceiver on another garment piece. The fastener and fastener receivermay interface to form a fastener assembly. One or more garment piecesmay be assembled into a garment or may be worn independently by awearer.

The fastener assembly may preferably be covered by fabric from one ormore garment pieces to create the appearance that two garment pieces areactually a single garment. A fastener may preferably be covered byfabric from the garment piece of which it forms a part when it is notinterfaced with a fastener receiver. A fastener receiver may preferablybe covered by fabric from the garment piece of which it forms a partwhen it is not interfaced with a fastener. Garment pieces comprising oneor more fasteners or one or more fastener receivers may thereby be usedas independent garments when the fastener is not interfaced with thefastener receiver.

The wearer may attach or remove different garment pieces to createdifferent types of garments. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, two sleevegarment pieces may be fastened to a sleeveless top garment piece tocreate a top with sleeves, or the sleeveless top garment piece may beworn separately as an independent garment piece. In addition, thesleeves may be worn separately as independent garment pieces. By mixingand matching various sleeve garment pieces with various sleeveless topgarment pieces, a wearer may assemble a large variety of top garmentsusing a relatively small number of garment pieces. The same principlemay be applied to assemble bottom garments, or to assemble top andbottom garments or garment pieces into garments, or to assemble variousother combinations of garment pieces into garments. The wearer thus willhave more wardrobe flexibility while maintaining a smaller wardrobe.

Alternatively, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, various combinations oftop garment pieces and bottom garment pieces may be assembled intodifferent garments or pairings of garments. Rather than owning severaldresses with various styles of hemming, lace, top configurations, and soforth, a wearer may own a small number of garment pieces that may beassembled using a fastener assembly to create a large variety ofdresses.

As shown in FIG. 3, top and bottom garment pieces may be worn assembledinto a single garment with a fastener assembly or may alternatively beworn separately as independent garments, without assembly with afastener assembly. This creates additional possible garmentconfigurations for the wearer using the same small number of garmentpieces.

A garment piece may comprise a fabric that may be attached to the fabricof another garment piece to generate a finished appearance or also havea finished appearance when worn as an independent garment.

In some preferred embodiments, the fastener assembly may add minimalweight to the assembled garment pieces and may only minimally alter thetexture of the assembled garment pieces.

In some embodiments, the fastener assembly may comprise consile seams,wherein the consile seams may be sewn together using conventionalstitching, such as a lock stitch or other conventional type of stitch.Consile seams may be sewn whereby the raw edges of fabric along theseams are concealed, thereby providing the garment piece with a finishedappearance on both sides of the garment. Since consile seams may be sewnreadily using known conventional sewing equipment, garment pieces may beproduced with minimum time, effort, and cost.

In some embodiments, the fastener assembly may comprise buttons andbutton holes, wherein the fasteners are buttons and the fastenerreceivers are button holes.

In some embodiments, the fastener assembly may comprise a zipper.

In some embodiments, the fastener assembly may comprise velcro.

In some embodiments, the fastener assembly may comprise a string. Thestring may be pulled by the wearer to loosen or tighten the garment.

In some embodiments, a garment piece may comprise one or moreembellishments, one or more trims, one or more decorations, or acombination thereof.

The garment pieces may vary in shape, color, pattern, and thickness.Garment pieces of different shapes, for example, may be worn together tocreate various outfits. Garment pieces of different shapes may also becombined to form garments.

The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided toenable any person skilled in the art to make or use the inventiondisclosed herein. Various modifications to these embodiments will bereadily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principlesdefined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departingfrom the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the present disclosureis not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is tobe accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novelfeatures disclosed herein. All references cited herein are expresslyincorporated by reference.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of assembling a garment comprising a.providing one or more garment pieces comprising fabric and a fastener;b. providing one or more garment pieces comprising fabric and a fastenerreceiver; and c. interfacing the fastener of one garment piece to thefastener receiver of another garment piece to form a fastener assembly;thereby forming a garment, wherein the fastener assembly is hidden byfabric of the garment pieces which comprise the garment.
 2. The methodof claim 1 wherein the garment pieces comprise a top garment piece and abottom garment piece.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the garmentpieces further comprise one or more embellishments, one or more trims,one or more decorations, or a combination thereof
 4. A first garmentpiece that may be combined with one or more other garment pieces to forma garment, wherein said first garment piece may also be wornindependently as a garment.